The present invention relates generally to mobile electronic devices and imaging devices.
Mobile electronic devices, such as mobile phones and personal digital assistants (PDA's), enjoy widespread popularity. The capabilities and functionality of these devices also continue to increase. For example, many of these devices have Internet browsing capability, which affords access to a wide variety of content and commercial service opportunities.
One drawback with mobile electronic devices is that their limited memory, display and bandwidth capabilities restrict the type and amount of content readily available to a device user. Typically, content is formatted specifically for a mobile electronic device in a manner designed to conserve device resources. In general, rich or data-intensive content is avoided in favor of more streamlined content.
In the field of printing, these resource limitations of mobile electronic devices restrict printing opportunities. In general, the traditional printing model involves pushing content resident on an electronic device, such as a PC, to an imaging device. Many imaging devices, such as personal inkjet printers, must receive the content rendered in a printer-ready format, such as PCL-3 or other page description language. Thus, the electronic device sending the print request must first convert the content into the appropriate printer-ready format.
One attempt to increase the printing capabilities of mobile electronic devices involves referencing data content resident on a remote content provider, sometimes known as “print-by-reference”. In one example of the print-by-reference printing model, the user of a mobile device sends a print-by-reference print request to an imaging device. The print-by-reference request may include, for example, a uniform resource locator (URL) address for the content to be printed. The imaging device transmits the request to a remote print service. The print service retrieves the content from a content provider, renders the content into the printer-ready format appropriate for the imaging device and transmits the content to the imaging device for printing. A more detailed description of the print-by-reference printing model is available in U.S. patent application Ser. No. 09/897,693 entitled PRINT BY REFERENCE SERVICE COMMUNICATION PROTOCOL AND INTERFACE and Ser. No. 09/897,646 entitled PORTABLE WIRELESS DEVICE AND PRINT DEVICE PRINT BY REFERENCE PROTOCOL, both applications assigned to Hewlett-Packard Co. Both of these applications are incorporated herein by reference in their entirety.
The mobility of the user of a mobile electronic device in the print-by-reference printing model presents potential challenges. For example, a mobile phone user waiting in an airport may desire to print a document using the print-by-reference model. The user may send a print-by-reference print request to an airport printer and wait for the printed output. Perhaps traffic is heavy on the print service or the airport printer has previous print requests in its queue. For these and various other reasons, there may be a delay in executing the user's print request. If during this delay the user must leave the area, perhaps to catch a flight, the print job will be printed despite the user's absence. In another situation, the user may be present when the print job is received by the imaging device, but may be unable to wait for the entire print job to be printed. Thus, it would be desirable to provide an improved printing method that addresses these types of situations and gives the user greater control over the printing process